Manager bans employee from using the bathroom whenever another coworker is on lunch break, even when there are plenty of other workers available to cover the floor: ‘They told me I had to wait’

Apparently, your bladder has to wait until everyone finishes their sandwich…

Every workplace has its own rules when it comes to lunch hours and breaks. Some of them are flexible and don't really set a schedule for employees, while others require specific times when people leave and then get back to work. 'Whatever floats your boat', they say… But what happens when this starts affecting your basic biological needs?

In a very popular boutique, the manager decided that when there's an employee on their lunch break, nobody is allowed to use the bathroom. The point? To make sure that the floor is covered and that all customers are attended to. Now, this brought some dark memories to me because, believe it or not, I had to deal with a very similar situation.

I was working full-time in an office, and the receptionist had a one-hour lunch break that she took every day at the same time. Because the front desk should always be covered, my boss at the time insisted that one of us should stay to cover it. In theory, each of us had a specific day to stay, and at first it worked. The problem was that nobody respected that, and I was the dumb one who stayed every single day. 

I couldn't move from the front desk for a whole hour! No bathroom breaks, no water breaks, nothing! Only me! I complained, of course, because it was unbearable, and later, each of us started to respect the schedule, and it was fine. But why weren't we allowed to use the bathroom? Why does there always have to be someone at the front desk (or the floor, in the case of the boutique)?

I will understand that rule, and I'm sure it didn't change how the business went and what the customers thought of us. Anyway, some rules are nonsense, but for the time being, respecting them is what we have to do. Or break them… you do as you please and let me know how it goes.